What would also help the scouting gameplay would be more rewards for scouting objecives (intel/...) spread across the whole team instead of rewarding players for just killing each other which leads to the mech monoculture of certain medium mechs we are seeing right now.

Don't just reward killing in "scouting"!

Reward being sneaky /stealthy/fast/clever / using light mechs and not pervert that mode like recent events have done!

And they just have to close to under 120m and get easy kill if boating ATMs.

I LOVE to see ATM boats on Scouting - such a one trick pony easily circumvented.

yeah mostly they're not difficult, except for maps where the atm huntsman can get up on terrain only accessible by JJs and most IS brawlers have no JJs

I think atm crows would be a bigger problem though, it will be most atm armed 55 tons of armour moving 20kph faster than most IS brawlers with good torso yaw, and you don't even need to be able to aim, so most ppl will be able to do this regardless of skill level

I have been out of the "loop" for some time, but it looks like not much have changed.

There used to be 2 strategies:
Bring the brawlers and slug it out,
or Bring 4 man 160+kph ECM lance and "inlet cheese" ( seldom seen, but was effective, no longer used due to how Attack/ Defend is implemented )

There is no determent of bringing max weight ( 55t / 50t ) mechs in scouting, since most of the time it is a brawl,

Hypothetically, if the scouting tonnage was limited to 45 tons for both IS and Clans. (45 ton mechs are typically fill the command role for light scout lances in lore )
It would still be a brawl, between BJ-1X* and Shadow Cat* , unless the objectives changed.

Which is why i would like to see the mechanics changed to encourage &quot;scoutish&quot; mechs... i want fighting, i want scouting, i want tactics...

I don’t think mechanics really need to be changed. Just the mindset of pilots in scouting. Right now we have a short range brawl-meta going on that 90%+ of the decent/good player base has bought into. Which is fine and it’s a sound strategy if the other side plays along and brings the same kind of builds....but is easily countered with kiting. It’s particularly easily countered on the clan side, just because as a clan pilot you can be 80%+ sure of what any knowledgeable IS team will bring....what their max ranges and speeds will be.....etc. I like to talk about it in terms of the kids game “rock, paper, scissors”....in scouting right now nearly everybody is bringing scissors....and even on the forums we mostly discuss how to build a sharper pair or how to get better using your scissors so you can beat the guy who also has scissors....however the easiest solution is really just to bring a rock. If more (capable) teams succeed with kiting vs the brawling meta....then it will get interesting in scouting as then have to see kiting counters developed and used. That should make things more interesting. But...idk...people do seem stuck on that brawling is the only way to go....which it seems like it is, at least until they run into an organized kiting team and then they are just hosed.

The biggest problem right now is the 4 x Bushwhacker IS Scout teams - the last round of "rebalancing" nerfed Clan weapons past the breaking point and it's "almost" impossible for clan teams to beat them. Even Huntsmen have issues facing 5 x SRM4 supported by an LBX-10, CT ERLL, and 3-4 LMGs per Bushwhacker. Even when you think you've "sticked" them - they still have that damned LL left.

The other thing that is way off balance this event is the armour on some of the IS mechs - I've had dozens of scouting matches this week where all 4 clan mechs are pounding a single IS mech and it refuses to shed armour. Believe it or not but Clan LRMs are proving the most effective in scouting right now.